Saturday, January 27, 2007

The December Birthstone? Turquoise (Among Others)The December birthstone is difficult

The December birthstone is difficult to decide upon. It seems there is no hard and fast birthstone for December the way there is for, say, May - the emerald, or January's garnet. Some sources will tell you that the birthstone for December is the Zircon, which is not the same as a cubic zirconia, but a real stone that is usually colourless and heat treated to turn it a beautiful blue colour. Some say the December birthstone is the Blue Topaz, probably because it became quite popular as a jewelry stone, and many people started viewing the Zircon as a synthetic, confusing it with the cubic zirconia. Other sources say turquoise which is what I am going with. So with turquoise in mind, I did the above bracelet with a mix of blues - blue turquoise and blue lapis - inspired once again by the great lampwork beads of James Derrick Reeves. Also, not only do I like lapis mixed with turquoise personally, but it has been mentioned as a traditional alternative to turquoise and blue topaz as the December birthstone. The smaller lapis pieces are good lapis from Afghanistan in a lovely dark royal blue. I have listed this bracelet on the Lapis Jewelry page on the Cluny Grey website, simply because there was more room on that page. The turquoise bracelet above features borosilicate (boro) lampwork beads and blue ovals and rounds in turquoise. I think of this more as a birthstone bracelet than the others.Turquoise gets its name from Turkey, and it has long been used in jewelry. A gift of turquoise is supposed to represent friendship and fidelity. In the ancient world, turquoise was considered to be a sacred stone.The bottom turquoise bracelet is called "In the Time of Flowers" and has great turquoise nuggets with the wonderful spidering veins that makes it so pretty when it is this colour blue, and little charms at intervals throughout the whole bracelet. Everything is sterling silver, and the lampwork beads were chosen to complement the spidering as well as the turquoise. To see more turquoise bracelets, click here. If you don't know what your birthstone is, or want to know your Hindu birthstone, see our Birthstone Chart.